During the drilling and completion or oil and gas wells, various wellbore treatments are performed on the wells for a number of purposes. For example, hydrocarbon-producing wells are often stimulated by hydraulic fracturing operations, where a servicing fluid such as a fracturing fluid may be introduced into a portion of a subterranean formation penetrated by a wellbore at a hydraulic pressure sufficient to create or enhance fractures therein. Such a fracturing treatment may increase hydrocarbon production from the well.
At a well stimulation site, there are typically several large pieces of fracturing (or other well stimulation) equipment on location that must be powered including, but not limited to, a gel mixer, liquid handling equipment, sand handling equipment, a blender, a plurality of high pressure hydraulic pumping units, and a control center. The equipment on location is used to deliver large quantities of fluid/proppant mixtures to a wellhead at high pressures to perform the desired operations. Often, the hydraulic pumping units and other machinery on location are powered by diesel engines. In general, these diesel engines operate at relatively low efficiencies (e.g., approximately 32%). The stimulation site will often include several individual diesel powered units (e.g., pumping units, blenders, etc.) that must be refueled multiple times a day throughout a multi-stage stimulation operation.